Chapter 6: Izumi Miyamura: Xover - Chapter 6
"the basics?"
"Basics, stretching!" I said cheerfully before starting to warm up my muscles, Taylor looked genuinely confused but awkwardly copied my movements, I quickly corrected her when she made a wrong move that would make things worse than it would help.
"Is this necessary?" she complained.
"Yeah, don't complain." I chided, she sighed but continued with the movements until we were done. "Okay, now, the first thing you need to do is build muscles and the second thing, I'll teach you how to breathe." Taylor looked at me like I was an idiot.
"Breathe?" I huffed and said nothing as I threw her a respirator mask "put it on and start running, there are marks on the floor, 20 laps!" Taylor seemed very unconvinced but she cautiously put the mask on anyway and started running, the yard was big, the marked circle was pronounced enough, almost half the field so it had a circumference of a little over 100 meters, I stared at Taylor who was only on her third lap and was already struggling with all her might to be able to breathe while clutching her chest, I only managed to make it two more laps before falling to the ground, I approached her and took off her mask.
"Are you okay?" I asked as I approached, Taylor was slowly recovering as she looked at me in horror.
"W-what was that?" I smiled wildly at her.
"Take away the air, like I said, you have to learn to breathe." She still looked confused "You have to learn to breathe properly, you'll know what I mean when you do, the mask was something I asked for a while ago on request, it reduces the amount of air you can breathe, less air, less oxygen ." That only confused her more.
"I… what, why?" I shrugged and ignored her.
"You still have 15 laps to go." I put the mask back on her, she looked at me incredulously "chop-chop!" I clapped, Taylor just made a face, but got up and started running, this time slower, controlling her breathing, this time I took the opportunity to look at Taylor with my transparent world, all of her organs and muscles were exposed, her way of breathing was terrible, even her running movements were completely amateur, something I had to fix quickly.
It took Taylor almost an hour to complete the remaining 15 laps, slow but I couldn't blame her, she tried to slow down as she tried, futilely, to conserve air in her lungs, still she had to stop every few laps from lack of air and exhaustion, more than once it looked like she was about to fall, I could see her legs shaking from exhaustion, it was only 2km she had to run but the complete lack of air was taking its toll on her entire body, still, Taylor's determined look was mesmerizing, I actually liked it if I was being honest, I could feel the bugs going crazy as she drained her emotions into them but her eyes still remained unchanged, once she finished the 20 laps, she allowed herself to fall, I approached her once more and removed her mask, Taylor took a deep breath.
"Well done!" I congratulated easily as I passed a bottle of water to the very sweaty Taylor, Taylor lazily grabbed it but just kept trying to catch her breath with large gulps of air, once again I focused on my transparent world "whoever repaired your muscles and organs did a good job." Taylor just blinked tiredly in my direction.
"Hey?"
"Your muscles and organs, it's easy to notice the age in them, there are always signs of damage or aging in them, but yours seem to be completely new, only a few months old." Taylor looked confused for a few seconds before blushing widely, trying to cover her body with her hands and legs.
"Y-you're looking at my organs?!" She squealed blushing, I raised an eyebrow in her direction.
"You recently stripped in front of me and nothing happened, but you're embarrassed that I see your organs?" I asked incredulously, she only blushed more.
" W -that's different!!" she exclaimed, I rolled my eyes "Panacea." I blinked in confusion and tilted my head "Panacea cured me at the beginning of January." I whistled in surprise.
"You did a good job, it will certainly do." I said, impressed. "Stand up." I ordered. She grimaced, but still obeyed slowly. Before I could say anything, she began to gulp down the water. "Now, put bugs on my chest and back." She choked on the water she was drinking and began to cough.
"Wh-what?!" I asked choked with tears in the corner of my eyes.
"I notice that you are able to follow my movements with your insects, and in fact copy several of them, good plan I must admit." She paled.
"Y-you noticed that?" I whispered in fear, I snorted.
"Of course I noticed, I didn't say anything because I wanted to see what you would do, I must say you surprised me, very good use of your quirk, you improved a lot in a short time, even though your body couldn't keep up." She grimaced "Now, the bugs on me, I want you to see how I breathe." She looked at me for a few seconds as if she was searching for something before blushing lightly.
"E-excuse me." With that a dozen insects tremblingly approached my chest, but it took them a while to get into position, I rolled my eyes once again.
"Okay, let's get started. I told you I would teach you how to breathe, but it's more than that." I began to explain. "I call it total concentration breathing. By increasing your lung capacity and breathing the right way, it allows for a greater amount of air to be held in your lungs. This causes an increase in the acceleration of blood flow and heartbeat, which in turn increases your body temperature and your bones and muscles artificially go into a panic mode similar to hysterical strength ."
" t -that... what?"
"Breathing correctly increases your strength, speed, endurance, durability, thought process and reaction time." simplifies to the confused Taylor.
"... is that possible?" she sounded incredulous and I nodded.
"it is and it has nothing to do with quirks or aura, in fact someone without quirks or aura could also learn this but it takes a lot of training." I replied "now, I want you to pay attention to your bugs." I had been breathing incorrectly since before Taylor arrived, Total concentration breathing: constant was a natural state for me at this point so I had to manually breathe in a way that was unnatural for my body just for this demonstration so, I took a breath of air, let it fill my lungs completely and felt my body rise, Taylor seemed surprised as she evidently felt the increase in my heartbeat and body temperature.
"w-wow" she looked surprised as she looked at my chest.
"You'll have to train a lot to achieve this, especially within the 10-month time limit until UA, but it should be possible, do you still want to continue?"
"YES!!" she said without hesitation and with determination, I smiled widely at her.
"Alright, that's how I like it, now focus on the bugs once more, try to replicate the way I breathe." She did so immediately, I winced at her poor attempt and quickly corrected her mistakes, she blushed when I placed my hands on her stomach or chest when correcting her breathing which caused her to make even more mistakes so I simply slapped them both hard making her squeal in pain, once she seemed to have mastered her breathing to some extent, she still lacked lung capacity, I sent her running once more.
Taylor clearly winced but didn't argue, I thinned the air again and she ran again whilst this time trying to breathe the correct way, she did much better, it still took her almost an hour to complete the 20 laps but she was able to maintain a near constant pace and took fewer breaks, it also helped that I threw rocks at her back when she started to breathe incorrectly.
---
"Well done." I praised Taylor as she took large gulps of her water bottle, she just glared at me but continued to hydrate, I snorted in amusement, despite how grueling the training was for her, Aura was working in real time to keep her in perfect health, so it was feasible to push her much easier than someone who didn't have it, so she would only be very tired for a short period of time and would barely feel the pain of fatigue later on "come on, let's go inside, you need to take a shower, I'll prepare something for lunch ." Taylor blinked.
"Will you cook?" I looked at her strangely, her voice sounded almost hopeful.
"Yeah? I'm usually the one who cooks, my mom's often busy." I shrugged, Taylor's anger seemed to evaporate easily and with a small smile she nodded, I didn't pay her much attention but I headed towards the house "no bugs in the house." I said when we were about to enter, she nodded and followed me to my room, where I picked up a set of clothes and handed them to Taylor, it was lucky enough that we had almost the same figure so anything of mine would fit her, even so she looked with a grimace at the clothes I offered her.
" Th -those are men's clothes," she said embarrassed, of course, how could I forget, a woman would never wear men's clothes, I rolled my eyes.
"Well, you can wear the clothes you came in or wear these." I put the clothes in her hand before pointing to a door not letting her answer "there's the bathroom, everything you need should be inside, lunch should be here in half an hour, don't be late." With that I left the room and went to the kitchen, my mother was innocently drinking tea while looking at some papers on the counter, I ignored her and started taking out the ingredients, I quickly started cooking, I let Soma's staff take over
" And... that girl... was Taylor?" she asked feigning disinterest, I snorted.
"I know you've been spying on us." I didn't have to see her to know that her cup shook slightly.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I rolled my eyes.
"He's in my room, taking a shower," that stopped her stiffly.
"She- a woman- is in your bathroom? Alone?! " she almost hissed dangerously.
"It's just a bathroom," I snorted, still cooking.
"It's more than that!! I know you're mature for your age and capable of protecting yourself Izumi, but she's still a girl, you have to be more careful!"
"I know, mom."
" And don't get me started, did you see how she was looking at you while you were training!? She was ogling you, I told you that wasn't a proper training outfit, it's too tight!!"
"I thought you weren't watching, mom."
" And I wasn't! But she's a girl! I know how you think and I'm sure I can't take my eyes off you."
"Of course mom, you are right."
"Izumi, I'm being serious!" I rolled my eyes amused, Taylor was harmless, well not really, her quirk was terrifying, even I could die if she injected me with enough poison while I was distracted, but she wasn't a threat in the way my mother thought, yes, she is a teenager, yes, she was a ball of horny hormones and yes, she was doing things in my bathroom that it was better not to tell my mother or she would surely kill her, but at no point did I feel malice coming from Taylor, infatuation, lust, respect, some fear and annoyance maybe, the latter only when I hit her, but nothing that indicated that she would actually do something like take advantage of a guy.
"It's okay, Mom," I said softly. "Taylor won't do anything she doesn't want her to." My mother bit her lip.
" A- are you interested in her?" I hummed consideringly.
"Maybe, she has her good points, but I don't know her well enough to decide." I said honestly, my mother was silent for a few seconds before nodding determinedly.
"Then I'll interrogate her." I rolled my eyes.
"Don't scare her, I really like her." I gave the green light, mostly because I knew I couldn't stop her.
"Don't worry, leave it to me." After that statement we stayed in a comfortable silence while I finished cooking, almost half an hour later I was about to finish the meal when Taylor timidly entered the kitchen with a pronounced blush, she had just gotten out of the shower and her hair was still completely wet, even loose and only put in a ponytail it seemed even longer than when it was braided, and she was wearing the clothes I offered her, she saw me smile widely at her and blushed even more, unfortunately I wasn't the only one who noticed the clothes, my mother looked at her surprised almost dumbfounded.
"Just in time Taylor, sit down." I said as I pointed to the counter, she nodded shyly and sat down, she paled when she noticed my mother staring at her as if she wanted to kill her.
" I -I, h-hi ma'am, I didn't get a chance to say hello to you earlier, I-I'm Taylor Hebert, it's a pleasure." Taylor said formally as she squirmed in her seat but still stretched out her hand to shake her hand, my mother just narrowed her eyes but made no move to reciprocate the greeting, Taylor retracted her hand shyly, I rolled my eyes again.
"Be good." I slapped my mother on the shoulder as she finished serving the dishes on the table.
"I'm Miyamura Iori." my mother almost growled, I sighed as I sat down in my seat.
"Thanks for the food ." I thanked myself for the food and began to eat, I rolled my eyes as I still saw my mother staring at a squirming Taylor in place "Eat up already."
"Thanks for the food," my mother repeated before starting to eat, without taking her eyes off Taylor.
"T-thanks for the food?" Taylor repeated awkwardly before taking a small bite with her cutlery, I had replaced the chopsticks for her, I doubted she was used to them, when Taylor brought the piece of food to her mouth, she closed her eyes and let out a moan of pleasure, I smiled as I continued eating, it was the reaction of anyone who tried something prepared with my quirk for the first time "it's delicious!!" she exclaimed happily before digging into her plate with more enthusiasm.
"Of course, my son made it," my mother replied, Taylor ignored her as she continued to let out inappropriate sounds with each bite.
"For goddess's sake, marry me Izumi." Taylor moaned seemingly not realizing what she was saying, I just laughed but my mother froze in place and dropped her chopsticks into her food as she stared at Taylor in disbelief, it only took a couple more bites for Taylor to register what she had blurted out and she paled as she robotically turned her head in our direction "I-I didn't mean that!" that made my mother angry.
"What? My son is not enough for you!? " my mother shouted.
"W-what?! N-no! I mean yes! W-I mean w-what?!" Taylor screamed in panic.
"Make up your mind girl! My son is or is not good enough for you!!" my mother growled angrily as she stood up, Taylor looked like she was about to faint from how pale she was "and how dare you propose to her like that!! Without my permission and in such a pathetic way, how dare you -"
" Okay ." I interrupted, rigidly stopping them both, this time my mother was the one who paled, my smile was growing widely, this was so fun, I love chaos.
"OKAY!??!""